HANOVER, N.H. – A total of 1,049 teams from across the NCAA Division I landscape were honored with Public Recognition Awards based on their most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR).

Once again, Dartmouth led the way with 26 teams earning recognition, marking the third straight year the college has topped the list.

The NCAA’s Public Recognition Awards have now been in existence since 2006 with the Big Green finishing in the top three each of the nine years the honors have been bestowed. In that time, Dartmouth has a total of 208 awards, more than any other institution while Yale’s 202 rank second.

Each NCAA varsity team is given a score on a scale from 1-1000 (1000 meaning that every individual on that team was academically eligible for the following term and either returned to school or graduated). Individual teams with a score below 925 over a multi-year period are subject to penalties. All of the 28 Dartmouth teams measured were well above the penalty line, with an average score of 998.4. The current report measures enrollment from the academic years 2006-07 through 2012-13.

The award is given to teams that have an APR among the top 10 percent in their respective sport. APR measures eligibility, graduation and retention each semester or quarter and provides a clear picture of the academic performance for each team in each sport.

With Dartmouth leading the way, fellow Ivy League institution Brown was second with 22 teams earning APR distinction. In all, 117 Ancient Eight programs were honored, comprising more than 11 percent (11.1%) of the entire Division I programs on the list. The Patriot League was second with 94 teams qualifying, 23 fewer than the Ivy League. The ACC (77) and Big Ten (66) round out the top four conferences.

The Big Green also lead the nation in teams who have appeared on this list each year since it first began nearly a decade ago. No other athletics program has as many as Dartmouth’s 14 teams making the list each year. Those consistently excellent programs in terms of APR are: football, field hockey, men’s golf, men’s soccer, both men’s indoor and outdoor track & field, women’s basketball, women’s rowing, women’s golf, women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, women’s swimming and diving, women’s tennis and women’s indoor track & field.

Men’s lightweight and heavyweight rowing, men’s and women’s squash, coed equestrian and coed sailing do not contest NCAA Championships and therefore were not measured.